Blog of Bishop Don Lippert, OFM Cap., bishop of the Diocese of Mendi, comprising the provinces of the Southern Highlands and Hela in Papua New Guinea. In the blog I hope to share my thoughts and experiences of life and ministry in Papua New Guinea and other topics of interest. Posts may be in Tok Pisin, English or Spanish. Your constructive comments and suggestions are well-appreciated.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

What 'marriage' really means

(I would like to share this article with you. It's a thoughtful and respectful presentation of this controversial subject. The truth and reasonableness of Fr Earl's argument shines forth brightly.)

G.K. Chesterton, fond of paradoxes, said that the more we
make a word mean the less it means. When we say that we love people and pizza,
that we love God and golf, we dilute the meaning of the word love. We devalue
the currency.

A recent victim of such overuse is the word
"marriage." It is now proposed that "marriage" be used
legally for same-sex relationships.

Sympathy for recognizing same-sex relationships as marriage
is understandable. The appeal is to freedom and love, rightly cherished values.
But marriage is about more than freedom and love. It is also about truth. It is
not just about the choice of individuals. It is about the fabric of society. It
is about a unique male-female expression of love by physically complementary
persons that in proper, natural conditions brings a new human life. Even in
arbitrary social contracts, civil rights have limits. If boys can join the Girl
Scouts, what does "Girl Scouts" mean?

In "Through the Looking Glass," Humpty Dumpty
said, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean --
neither more nor less."

"The question is," Alice said, "whether you
can make words mean so many different things."

The master is truth, conforming to objective reality.
Marriage is about a truth of human nature, the reality of human life and love
in the form of male and female.

The uniqueness of the unity of husband and wife is a
communion of love which, by its very nature, can create an entirely new human
life with the world-altering responsibility to nurture that life with the same
complementary form of love. If some such marriages do not or cannot generate a
new life, the union is still of a natural design that does.

When a baseball player does not get a hit, the batter is
still playing baseball, not badminton. The male-female complement is of the
essence of marriage. No other relationship, no matter how loving or committed,
can have the unique form of commitment and communion which exists in the
potentially fruitful bond of husband and wife.

This union alone can bring a new human life and continue the
human race.

For those committed to the Judeo-Christian heritage, the
proper meaning of marriage is imperative. Scripture presents the covenant
between God and his people in the image of husband and wife. The teachings of
Christ on the nature of marriage are unambiguous.

To hold that marriage is a union of a man and a woman is not
to deny a freedom to those who desire to make a same-sex commitment. It is,
rather, to assert a freedom from legal coercion to endorse as marriage what is
not the marital union found in nature and confirmed as such by many religious
faiths. Freedom of conscience is paramount, both ways.

Those who choose a same-sex relationship would do well to
find a new word for their commitment. "Marriage" is taken.

-- Father Earl Meyer is with the Capuchin Center for
Spiritual Life in Victoria.